Recent Profile Visitors

Please just no. Along this same line of thought, I'd like the entire tech tree of each nation unlocked for every new account as well.
What is this "earning" and "learning" you speak of?
Nice troll topic...

Don't be afraid to try other lines and ship types so that you can broaden your understanding of how different ships play. You may find a ship type or nation with a different play style that you prefer. Or you may reaffirm that you prefer IJN cruisers, but your knowledge gained from experiencing different ships will make you play IJN cruisers better.
I made the mistake of grinding my first line to T10 and playing that T10 ship for over 500 games before trying other lines. I soon realized that not only did I enjoy other lines more, but my skill increased due to my greater understanding of different ships gained through experiencing them myself.
Branch out and enjoy yourself.

why do people complain when people use tactics that prolong their survival and play to strengths of their ship? charging in and dying is not always the most effective tactic. this is kind of a silly thread.

Prior to smoke changes I would smoke teammates quite often, but since smoke changes I will only smoke teammates if they ask for it because, as was pointed out, many people don't know how to, or don't want to, use smoke anymore. I used to really like this opportunity for team work, so I'm sad to see it's not as common anymore. On the other hand, people are so accustomed to torping smoke now, that I sometimes use smoke as a torpedo magnet to draw out torps before pursuing red dd's. It's quite common to see torps passing through smoke that has no ships in it.

It seems my torps are getting knocked out more often than before in Gearing. But it also seems to happen most often when a Worcester is hitting me... I imagine it make sense due to the huge volume of HE shells this ship can put out.

I have to vote for DE because khab farms witherers. The higher fire chance you have, the better. As stated above, not only do fires add up damage, but they also trigger damage control parties which make enemy ships a lot less ballsy when their dcp is on cool down.
When I play khab, my main focus is to stack fires on as many ships at the same time as I can. If I get a fire on a bb, I instantly switch to another nearby bb if available, and then the next. If any of the ships that are burning use dcp, they become my priority target until they get at least 2 perma fires.
I guess what I'm trying to say is my main goal in a khab is to set fires and trigger dcp's. It isn't uncommon for a 200k dmg game to include 100k fire damage. I see this as the best way to contribute to the win: inflict damage to degrade the enemy's ability and will to push into our caps. If I get a chance to shoot at a dd, i'll take it, but my main focus is burning down bb's and inflicting raw damage on cruisers.

As a general rule of thumb, if you struggle playing a ship class, buying a premium in that class is not the answer. I suggest taking the advice of some of the respondents by watching some YT vids and playing some (hundreds) of low to mid tier battles to practice the techniques you learn in the vids. Stay alive as long as a you can by practicing good map awareness and understanding ship movements.

Yea, if you have 120mm or higher, your HE will pen dd's no matter where you hit them (except khaba) due to the thin armor (<20mm), so don't aim at the water line because some of your shells will fall short. Aim at the middle of the ship to maximize hits. This covers 90% of the time. If the enemy is flat broadside, aim AP at the middle of the full for increased damage.
However, I think the more important tactic is to alter your course to make the enemy miss, especially if he has higher DPM than you do. Of course, if you are fighting against a german dd, angle away to avoid insane AP damage unless you like losing 4-5k hp per salvo. Germans have relatively weak HE, so you can win HE fights with most other gunboats.

Just stay alive, no matter how long, no matter how far....
I think the standard 10pt build for dd's focuses on survivability: preventative maint, last stand, survive exp, concealment exp.
The next 9 pts is where you can customize your ship depending on the line's strengths (guns vs torps, etc). But either way you go, the strategy in the match should be to stay alive as long as possible. A dd with 0 damage can win the game for the team by spotting and capping late in the game. This is especially true in high tiers due to the lethality of high tier ships. 1 salvo from a monty can take half (or more) of your health. One 56s radar from a DM can easily kill you if you are caught in a bad position and focused.
If you feel that you are not performing as well as you would like, a common reason may be because of dying too early.